This document discusses agile management of mega-projects. It defines mega-projects as those that are expensive, complicated, long-term projects with many teams, sites, stakeholders, and dependencies between moving parts. Mistakes can be very costly. The document recommends forming a Tactical Management Group (TMG) to recreate agile conditions for work teams, provide close leadership, and take a 360-degree view of the project. The TMG aims to deliver value through fast feedback, independent teams, rough planning, and tangible design with stakeholder feedback. Key elements discussed include value management, tactical architecture, tracking milestones and risks, and using tools to help manage mega-projects under volatile conditions.

1. Agile Management of
Mega-Projects
March 2018
Think Simple, Run Faster

2. 1. What is Agile and when should we use it
2. What is a mega-project and why it is not agile
3. TMG – Tactical Management Group
4. Recreating Agile conditions
5. Tool for the Job
Agenda

3. Agile Edge Conditions
Error fixing cost
Dependencytype
Cheap Expensive
Hard
Soft
SW
Civil Infrastructure
Military/Aerospace
Assembly
Industrial controls
.com
IT
Firm-ware
PCB
Semi-conductors
Construction
Legal
M&A
Re-org
HR-intense
Agile
Region

4. VUCA Pressure
Market
Needs
Market
Expects
VUCA
“Requirements change faster then we can
deliver, and stakeholders expects us to keep up,
because they understand there are no hard
limits”

5. Agile Elements for dealing with VUCA
Fast “market”
feedback
(extreme TTM)
Short term
focus*
Design
on-the-fly
Independent
team
*In Israel it is the alternative to no planning,
rather then long term planning that is too rigid

6. • Expensive:
100s of man-years / $B in tangibles
• Complicated:
Many teams, many sites, many stakeholders
• Long:
Years of work, often with strict deadlines
Mega-Project
Dependencies between many
moving parts
Mistakes can be very costly
Very waterfall

7. 1. Closely-knitted leadership for the project
2. 360 view: PM, PO, Dev, QA, Arch, UX, IT…
3. Create Agile conditions for work teams
(feedback, independence, less docs, focused work)
TMG: Tactical Management Group
Mgmt.
TMG
Work
Teams

8. Get fast to Feedback
Requirements
Specifications
Develop
Integrate
Test
Deploy
MVP with Excellent Design Feedback-based incremental iterations

9. Excellent MVP Design & Execution
Value
Mgmt.
Tangible
Design
Stake-
holder
feedback
(miniDR)
Tactical
Arch.
Rough
Planning Develop
MVP with
Excellent
Design
TMG
Sprints
Well-Groomed
Backlogs

10. Value Management
Do! Really Try
Delay Don’t
5
3
1
7
2
6
8
4
9
5
Cost, Risk, Effort
Business
Value
Focus Matrix

11. Tactical Architecture
• Minimize dependencies
• Split to sub-parts: projects, products, services
• Single site/team as owner
• Small number of integration milestones

12. Rough Planning
• Back-of-the-envelope capacity planning
• Capture Main dependencies
• Understand general timeline and budget
• Track changes

13. Tangible design & Stakeholder feedback

14. TMG Tracking: MSM
1. Milestones
2. Risks
3. Budget
4. Stakeholders
5. Changes
6. Action Items

15. • Mega-projects are not naturally Agile
• We can (sometimes) re-create Agile environment
• The reward is very high: TTM, focus, control, value
• TMG is a key success factor
• A good tool can really help
Summary

16. Thanks, and keep it…